1796.) Strigiures on Mrs. 
poignancy of feeling, and which will not 
ceale to be admired, as long as delicacy of 
fentiment and the amiable charities of the 
human heart are held in eftimation. After 
rhis preamble, it will hardly be neceffary to 
fay, that the work I refer to is the Letters 
of Mrs. Wollftoncraft, during a fhort re- 
fidence in Sweden, Norway, and Den- 
mark. . 
[ have not the pleafure of being ac- 
quainted with this lady; but as I think her 
one of the diftinguifhed few whofe writ- 
ings may contribute towards difpelling the 
miits of prejudice and error, 1 regret the 
more, that want of fuficient attention, 
fhould, in fome inftances, have given rife to 
an imaccuracy of expreffion, which may 
cend to miflead, rather than inftruét. Of 
this nature, { apprehend, is the follow- 
ing paflage, page 217: ‘* What, for 
example, has piety under the Heathen or 
Chiiftian fyftem been, but a blind faith in 
‘things contrary to the principles of reafon ? 
And could poor reafon make confiderable 
advances, when it was reckoned the high- 
eft degree of virtue to do violence to its 
diétates :”’ From this ftatement, the infe- 
rence might be, and to fome minds the 
inference actually would be, that the piety 
of Heathenifin,and of Chriftianity,had been 
alike inimical to the progrefs of reafon, 
and degrading to human nature. Now, 
piety being an affection of the heart, and 
not a matter of {peculative opinion, it may, 
perhaps, be a queftion how far it ts really 
burtful, even where the objects of its awe, 
fear, and love. producing reverence, hu- 
smility, gratitude, truft, and confidence, 
have no real exiftence. But be this as it 
may, furely no one will affirm, that where 
the fupreme object of adoration is the great 
Author of the Univerfe,, and is confidered 
as a being of fpotlefs purity, and of infi- 
nite goodnefs as well as power (and fuch 
,4s the God of the rational Chriftian) 
_ thefe affections can have any tendency to 
debafe the human charaéter; rathet, on 
the contrary, would they lead the humble 
werthipper to afpire after the imitation of 
thefe divine perfe€tions, and according to 
the emp atic language of Scripture, to be- 
come holy as God is holy, righteous as he 
is righteous, and merciful as he is merci- 
ful. Piety like this, far from debafing 
reafon, is her nobleft auxiliary, animates 
_her every generous exertion, is the trueft 
refiner of the human foul, and the only 
unfailing fupport of weak and erring crea- 
tures, in the dangers, the difficulties, and 
calamities of life. Bur to return ;—if a 
flight alteration had been made in the con- 
flrugtion of the fentence, and if, inftcad of 
Wollfoncraft’s Letters. 279 
piety, Mrs. Wollftoncraft had ufed the 
term religion, fhe would then merely have 
afferted what no rational Chriftian will 
deny, namely, that a miferable fuperfti- 
tion, enforcing many expre{s contradic- 
tions to reafon, and very debafing to the 
human mind, has too often in Chriftian as 
well as Heathen countries, been miftaken - 
for religion; and thar, bound in fuch fetters, 
it was not poilible for reafon to make con- 
fiderable progrefs. 
A like want of accuracy is to be regret~ 
ted, in page 219, where our author fays, 
‘I have formerly cenfured the French for 
their extreme attachment to theatrical ex- 
hibitions, becaufe I thought that they tend- 
ed to render them vain and unnatural cha- 
racters. But I muft acknowledge, efpe- 
cially as women of the town never appear 
in the Parifian, as in our theatres, that the 
little faving of the week is more ufefully — 
expended there every Sunday, than in por- 
ter or brandy, to intoxicate or ftupify the 
nind.” The expreflion more ufefully ex- 
pended, as if there were no other alterna- 
tive, feems not only,an apology for this 
mode of {pending the Sunday, but even to 
impofe an approbation of it. But our author 
_afluredly never meant to affirm that, in order 
to avoid the grofs vice of drunkennefs, it is 
neceflary that a people fhould plinge into 
perpetual fcenes of diffipation, and efpe- 
cially, inte fcenes where the patlions are 
wont to be unduely and improperly ex- 
cited, and which, perhaps, as effectually 
unfit the mind for calin reflection, and the 
rational exercife of its faculties, as the very 
vice which fhe fo juftly condemns *. It 
ought, moreover, to be taken into the ac- 
count, that a rage for theatrical exhibi- 
tions, gives occafion to the negieét of fa- 
mily duties; checks the growth and cul- 
tivation of the focial affections, by purfu- 
ing happinefs without the pale of domeftic 
enjoyment; caufes the common occurren- 
ces of life to appear flat and infipid; and 
by {pending in this manner the favings of 
the week, not only throws away the means 
of attaining independance, but by its ge- 
neral operation prevents thofe habits of fru- 
gality from being formed, which, in any 

* No notice is here taken of the infringement 
of a divine command, to abitain one day in feven 
from the common occupations and amufements 
of life, there being fome who do not think that 
this inflitution of the fewifh difpenfation, is par- 
ticularly enjoined by the Chriftian, as a difpenfa- 
tion intended tor univerfal acceptation; but, on 
the contrary, that allthat clafs of duties which 
may be termed i”/rumental, the Sabbath among 
the reft, 1s left to the difcretion of its difciples. 
ftation 
